


Blood On The Wall or THE SHAKESPEARE KILLER

by abirdonalilactree



Series: And Oxfords number of inhabitants drops some more [1]
Category: Lewis (TV)
Genre: Crime, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Robert and James try to be parents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2019-07-02 09:19:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15793587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abirdonalilactree/pseuds/abirdonalilactree
Summary: There is a new serial killer in Oxford. And he seems to be a huge fan of Shakespeares plays.As usual Lewis and Hathaway investigate.But this time they also have to take care of a young girl they find at one of the crime scenes.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfiction in the Morseverse fandom.  
> I had much fun writing it and I hope you’ll enjoy reading it!
> 
> Disclaimer  
> This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the Morseverse, which was Created by Colin Dexter and Developed by Chris Burt and Stephen Churchett.  
> I do not claim any ownership over the characters from Lewis or the world of Oxford.  
> The story I tell here about Lewis and Hathaway is my own invention, and it is not purported or believed to be part of Colin Dexters story canon. This story is for entertainment only and is not part of the official story line.

The corpse was lying there almost peacefully.  
They didn't see something like that very often. It was usual for a murder victim to have an expression of fear or hurt or both, when they found them.  
If they still had a sound face at all.

If it wasn't for the strange arrangement of the corpse, you could almost assume, that she was taking a nap, and soon would wake up to bake cookies for her grandchildren or crochet a scarf or something.  
The room was cold, just like the glaring light.  
There was no furniture and there weren't any windows.  
It felt like a cell.  
You felt like a prisoner in there.

They didn't want to imagine, what her last hours would have been like.  
Had she been held captive?  
Maybe.  
There was a plastic bottle, probably formerly filled with water in the left-hand corner of the room.

Just above the corpse was a verse written.  
Red dripped from the wall.

It wasn't the victim's blood, who didn't have any visible injuries, which could lead to the conclusion, that there might be a second victim.  
It wasn't much blood though. There still could be a chance to save the second victim, unless it was animal blood, of course. They would have to ask forensics about that one later.

The letters on the wall were somehow cursive, which made the handwriting look beautiful in a grotesque way.

Lewis was sure, Hathaway was going to tell him, where the verse was from, every second, now.

...

And there he went:

"'Fair is foul, and foul is fair;  
Hover through the filthy air.'

-The weird sisters, MacBeth, Act one, Scene one. ...Shakespeare..."

 

Lewis nodded.   
Just as he had been expecting. He mumbled something along the lines of 'stupid ... Oxford'.

"But what has it to do with the murder?", he asked.

They had a closer look at the body.  
The woman was in her late 60s.

Her arms were crossed, her eyes were shut, her skin was as grey as ashes, her hair was white.  
She seemed quite small, had a flowery dress and a blue hat lay next to her.

Like you would imagine a young grandma.

“She’s been dead for three hours.”, Laura said. “It looks like a heart attack, but I’ll know more later.”

The rest of the house was quite empty. A small bedroom. In one of the drawers were old and dusty children’s clothes.  
A living room with a sofa and a really old Tv. Hathaway didn’t even remember at the moment, how they were called. It wasn’t a flatscreen.  
The kitchen was clean, and didn’t look like, it was used very often.  
The bathroom also was quite empty. There were a few half wet towels, and a collection of used toothbrushes.  
They probably would have to come back to that place sometime later.

~~~L~~~

 

When Hathaway left the crimescene, while Lewis still chatted with Laura, there was, out of nowhere, a little girl, that suddenly grabbed his arm with tiny hands.

"Excuse me, Mr, Sir, where is my auntie?"

"Who is your auntie?", Hathaway looked down to her, already assuming the worst. The girl had long blond hair and blue eyes. She wore a red dress and black shoes. Maybe they weren’t related. Maybe this was a coincidence, he wanted to tell himself.

"Have you seen her?", she asked.

"Can you describe her to me?"

"She likes to bake cookies and reading and yelling at the TV, when there is politics on it."

Hathaway had almost grinned, when he asked: "How does she look like?"

"Her hair is white like snow, she is bigger than me, she has brown eyes and she wears a dress. Have you seen her?"

Hathaway looked down at her uncomfortably and asked: "Umm... Where are your parents?"

"They are with Jesus, auntie always says."

"Do you have any other relatives?"

"Just my auntie. Where is she?", she asked.

"I think she is with your parents, now.", Hathaway stuttered, not knowing, what else to say.

"Oh. ...Can I go to them?"

"I'm sorry, but you can't." Hathaway said slowly and his heart broke a little.

"Oh." The girl pouted.

"...Maybe later...You can come with me, if you like to..."

The girl shook her head and crossed her arms, while still looking adorable: "I'm not allowed to go with strangers."

"I'm James, I-"

"But auntie said-"

"I'm a police officer."

"Auntie says police officers are stup-"

Then Lewis approached them: "Laura has finished, we can go."

"Sir, we have a problem.", Hathaway said, then came closer and whispered something in his ear, while the girl carefully watched them.

Lewis nodded.

"Hello, my dear, I'm Robbie. What is your name?", he said cheerfully.

"Anne.", she answered shyly.

"That's a beautiful name. I have a daughter, but she is now a grown up and has her own children. But when she was your age she really liked ice cream. Do you like ice cream?"

"Yes, I do." Her eyes lit up.

"Then let us get some. And we can talk a little-"

"I don't know." She stepped back.

Then Laura, who had packed her things up, approached them. She looked at the girl.

Before she could say anything, Lewis said: "Anne, this is Laura."

"Is she from the police too?" She watched her suspiciously.

"No, she isn't, but she is a friend of us."

"Laura, we just talked about getting some ice cream for the niece of - What was your aunties name again?"

"Caroline."

“And her surname?”, the Sergeant asked.

“Ford.”, Anne reluctantly said and Hathaway quickly wrote it down.

"...Oh, I see...", Laura nodded, understanding, what they tried to do there.

"Would you like to join us?", Lewis asked. “Hathaway is paying.”

"Sure... Maybe for half an hour. But then I have work to do. I have to- You know what I have to."

The men nodded.

"Are you coming, Anne?", Lewis asked and held his hand out.

The little girl looked at each one of the grownups carefully. "Ok.", she said reluctantly. She ignored Lewis’ hand, still sceptical and took Lauras hand instead and followed them.

 

~~~L~~~

 

Soon, they sat in a small and quiet café, not very far from the crime scene, each one of them holding a small ice cream cone.

Anne got blue and green ice cream with undefinable but very sweet flavours, Laura got strawberry and chocolate, Hathaway a mixture of different fruits and Lewis just vanilla.

They tried to act as casual as possible.  
Not knowing how much the girl knew and how much she understood, what she had seen, and wanting to talk to her, before she had to be taken to an orphanage or worse.

None of them really knew what was the best way to ask her about the events, that led to the death of Caroline Ford. So Lewis talked a bit about the weather and Laura showed them some pictures she had taken of a cute cat, she had seen on her way to work this morning, on her phone. 

"Did Caroline have any enemies?", Hathaway finally asked.

Laura and Lewis exchanged a side-glance.

"Huu?", the girl asked, her mouth full of ice cream.

"He likes to know, if there were any people who didn't like your auntie.", Lewis clarified.

"I don't know. She often yells at people. They don't like that." She shrugged her small shoulders.

"Which people does she yell at?", Hathaway asked.

"Stupid people.”, she said.

“Do you know their names, or anything else to describe them?”

“People she meets on the streets or knock on the door. They all look different.”

“Where were you this morning?”, Hathaway asked.

Laura kicked his leg, which shocked him a bit, so he had to swallow up and cough.

“I was at the playground.”

“Are you allowed to go there alone?”, Laura asked.

“Please don’t tell auntie.”

“We won’t tell her.”, Lewis said reassuringly.

“Did you see from there anyone entering the building?”, Hathaway asked.

She shook her head.

“When did you last see your auntie?”

“I see her every day.”

Lewis and Hathaway exchanged a look. What had the woman been doing in that room?

“Is there a room in your house … which you are not allowed to go into?”

“No. all of the rooms are boring. I don’t like that house. But auntie says, when I get older, I can go to a school, where I can also live.”, she answered cheerfully.

“That sounds nice.”, Laura said.

“Thank you for my ice.”, Anne said, when she had finished it.

“You are welcome.”, Lewis said. 

Without exchanging words, Lewis and Hathaway decided, that the girl had answered enough questions for that day.  
Also Laura had to get back to work to have a look at Caroline Ford.  
Hathaway crossed his arms and focussed on the floor, while Lewis and Laura tried to clean the girls face, because she had smeared the blue ice cream all over it.

 

~~~L~~~

 

Then they had to go back to the police station to inform chief superintendent Innocent.  
Because they didn’t know where else to put her, Anne had to wait with Laura in the morgue.

But before they entered the office, Hathaway stopped the DI and whispered: ”You miss being a father.”

Lewis didn’t answer.

“Do you want us to keep her?”, the Sergeant asked.

Lewis first looked stubborn, but then he nodded “Yes.” and they entered the office.

“I heard you found a young girl at the crime scene.”, Innocent said straightout. She leaned against her desk and had her arms crossed.

"She probably knows more, than we think.", Hathaway said.

“She might be able to help us, solve the case.”, Lewis said.

Innocent answered: “Let her tell you everything she knows and then I’m going to make some phone calls and-“

“We can’t put her in one of these… childprisons.”, Lewis suddenly exclaimed.

“We can take care of her.”, the Sergeant added.

Innocent took a deep breath: “Hathaway-“

"I have taken care of children before and they turned out perfectly fine.", Lewis said stubbornly.

Innocent finally, to the surprise of all of them nodded with a sigh.

"Take care of her until we find another solution."

“Thank you.”, Lewis said, before they left the office.

Innocent rolled her eyes.

 

~~~L~~~

 

In the dark of night they drove to Lewis’ home.   
James was tired and hungry, but he didn't complain, because the girl wasn't complaining either.

But he did sigh, which earned him a sideglance from Lewis.

Anne was very quiet, but they assumed, that she was just tired after the long day.

 

~~~L~~~

 

Hathaway had to look after the girl, while Lewis phoned Lyn to ask if she knew, where her old toys were.

"I can't sleep.", the little girl said, small tears, streaming down her face.

"...What is wrong?", Hathaway asked helplessly.

"There is this dark shadow."

"You should try to imagine something nice, like..." The Sergeant looked completely lost.”Like flowers?”

"Also I miss my Teddy bear. Charly."

"Then we should wait until Lewis is back."

"Ok."

And they sat in silence for a few minutes.

“Can I have a glass of water, please.”, the girl asked.

Hathaway brought the water.

“The pillow is too small.”, the girl whined.

Hathaway brought a second pillow.

"I saw you have a guitar in your car?", the girl finally said.

"Yes...oh, would you like me to play something for you?", he said reluctantly.

"Maybe.", she said quietly, but her voice was much less teary.

Hathaway got up once again and soon came back with his guitar.

He started to play something softly.  
And when Lewis finally came back, the girl already was fast asleep.

 

~~~L~~~

 

So Lewis and Hathaway sat down in the living room to do some research on the internet.

“We’ll have to buy her a new stuffed animal. I can’t find Lyns old ones.”, Lewis said. “But good job, getting her to fall asleep.” 

“I’m exhausted.”, Hathaway said with a small smile.

“Isn’t she just adorable?”, Lewis asked.

“Yes. Yes she is.”, he answered.

And then they got silent again, the only sound in the room being the clicking- sounds of the keyboard.

They found the police reports of Josephine and Gabriel Ford being killed in a car accident three years ago, leaving a young daughter behind.

With the help of Facebook and the universities website, they found out that Caroline Ford had been a Tutor for one of the theatre clubs. And from that point it wasn’t hard to find out, that this particular theatre club had a rivalry with one of the latin clubs.

"Well, we are in Oxford.", Hathaway said, shrugging, when Lewis looked at him. 

"Let's call it a day." He stretched his hurting limbs and got up. "It's long past midnight."

Hathaway nodded and laid down on the sofa. 

Lewis looked for a moment, like he wanted to say something, but then he just gave him a blanket, said ‘good night’, and went to sleep in his bedroom.

 

~~~L~~~


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all: Thank you for your patience.  
> Thank you so much to everyone who gave kudos, and everyone who read this and came back.  
> I didn’t expect, that so many people would be reading this.  
> I hope you’ll enjoy the second chapter as much as the first one.

When Lewis woke up the next morning, Anne and James already were in the kitchen, preparing breakfast.

“A nice Sunday morning breakfast.”, Lewis stated, as he entered the room. He was still half asleep.

“First I wanted to make scrambled eggs, but then I looked into your fridge. I believe the eggs are from ’93, Sir.”

“Well, it was the best year for eggs. Loads of healthy chicken.”, Lewis said, yawned and stretched his hurting limbs.

“Also the milk has expired.”, James added, focusing on the pan.

“I’m just waiting for it to become butter.”

“That’s not how this works.”

“So what are you preparing?”, Lewis asked as he looked over his Sergeants’ shoulder. His stomach made a loud noise.

“Vegan Pancakes.”

“Great.”, Lewis said. But his eyes said something else.

The Sergeant smirked, as he searched for three clean plates. The DI was often a bit grumpy in the mornings.

“The secret ingredient is butter.”, he said and chuckled lightly.

“Auntie says Vegans are eating our food’s food.”, Anne said cheerfully. James had given her the important task to fold the napkins. A task, which she took very seriously, folding the napkins to smaller and smaller messy squares.

“Well, she is not wrong.”, Lewis said, before Hathaway could argue back.

 

~~~L~~~

 

After the breakfast, they gave the girl a few pieces of paper and a pen to keep her distracted and then they sat down in the living room, while the girl stayed in the kitchen.

“What is our plan for today, Sir?”

“We should talk to the actors from this theatre group, the victim was the tutor of.”

“And we also should get a few things for Anne, Sir.”

“Almost forgot. I can’t believe I can’t find many of Lyns’ things anymore.”

“Maybe she took some of them with her.”

“I don’t think she took her stuffed animals with her! On the other hand… perhaps we gave them to her younger cousin. Or…” Lewis looked a bit lost, while James checked with his phone a few things.

“The rehearsal should start in an hour -should we go and grab a few things for Anne on our way there?”

“Sure. They seem very motivated, when they are practicing on a Sunday. Would you like some more coffee first?”

“No, thanks, Sir. I think we should better get going.”, James said, as they stood up.

“We are going on an excursion.”, Lewis said as cheerfully, as he could, when he entered the kitchen again.

“Yay.”, said the girl and climbed off the chair.

“Get your jacket.”, Hathaway said.

The girl ran into the living room to search for her jacket, while the men followed her.

“Do you think she still needs a child’s car seat?”, Lewis asked quietly.

“If you had one, would she fit in it?”

“Well, she is quite small.”, Lewis said with doubt in his voice.

“Have you brushed your teeth?”, Hathaway asked, as the girl came back.

Anne went back to the bathroom.

They found out, that Lewis did still have a child’s car seat, and Anne fit in it perfectly. So they decided that it might be a good idea to actually use it then.

And then they were occupied with installing the child’s seat in their car for at least 45 minutes.

 

~~~L~~~

 

When they finally parked in front of Anne’s former home, Hathaway stayed with the girl in the car. He studied some case files, while she told him which kind of dinosaur was the best kind and why.

The DI went into the house alone, because it was still a crime scene.

Lewis collected a few of her clothes, as well as some other essential items, including her school books.

But then he noticed that there weren’t many toys. Just a few puzzle pieces, a small plastic boat and a card game.

He couldn’t find her teddy bear anywhere.

Despite the murder that happened there, the house somehow made Lewis get into a depressed mood.

When he got back into the car, he asked: “So do you have homework to do?”

“…Maybe, …Auntie always helps me.”, the girl answered reluctantly.

“We’ll do that later. Ok?”, Lewis said. “Now we are going to the theatre.”

The girl didn’t answer, but the DI noticed, that she didn’t look very happy.

“Did you often go to the theatre with your aunt?”, he asked.

She shook her head. “No, I wasn’t allowed there, because they were always playing scary adult plays, auntie said.”

“So you don’t know any of the people there.”

“No.” She shook her head more decidedly.

“We should let her wait in the car. If they do know her, she might get in danger.”, James whispered under his breath.

“I agree. We could show her photos of them later, just to make sure, she really doesn’t know any of them.”

 

~~~L~~~

 

And soon they parked in front of one of the smaller theatre buildings of Oxford.

James gave her his phone to play with, to keep her occupied, while they were away.

After they found a hidden entrance, they entered a small hall. It smelled strongly of popcorn and the lights were dimmed.

A young woman stood in the spotlight in one corner of the stage, surrounded by the rest of the actors, who seemed to be frozen in their movements.

Her voice echoed through the hall. It was clear and loud, but at the same time soft and tender.  She said:

_“Yes, often, I am reminded of her, and in one of my vast array of pockets, I have kept her story to retell. It is one of the small legion I carry, each extraordinary in its own right. Each one an attempt –an immense leap of an attempt- to prove to me that you, and your human existence, are worth it.”_

“This is probably not Shakespeare.”, Lewis whispered in surprise.

Hathaway nodded.

When the woman who had spoken spotted them, she left the stage and approached the detectives.

“I’m sorry, but you are not allowed in here, unless you’d like to participate. Then grab a text and a costume.”

James coughed uncomfortably

“That wasn’t Shakespeare. Was it?”, Lewis asked.

“Actually our project for this month is making a play out of a ‘normal’ book.”

“Which one is it?”, Lewis asked with a side-glance towards Hathaway, expecting him to answer his question.

But the young woman was faster. “It is ‘The book thief’ by Markus Zusak. Caroline chose it. But she is late today. Maybe I should call her.”, the girl said.

“Interesting.”, Hathaway said.

“What can you tell us about Caroline?”

“Did something happen to her?”, she asked, loudly. The other actors, who had stayed in the other part of the room, stopped talking.

“I’m afraid-“

“Oh, no! She is dead isn’t see?”, she gasped.

“How-Why?-”, Lewis asked startled.

“I’m an actress; of course I can read faces. Oh my god. I knew, you looked like you had bad news.”

She hugged herself tightly like to calm herself down. It didn’t work well.

“What was her role in the play?”, Lewis asked.

“She had to play the mayor’s wife. Ilsa Hermann.”

Hathaway nodded.

“How should we practice without her? Would you take her part?”

“Oh. Uhm. I’m not good with politics.”

“Everyone knows about German politics in the 1930s.”

Hathaway shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other.

“Oh, wait. You probably haven’t read the book.”

Hathaway focused on the floor.

Lewis watched him, mockingly shocked.

“It’s basically about a young German girl that steals books.”, a young man with short trousers and a ragged t-shirt chimed in, “Hello, I’m Lucas and I play Rudy Steiner. He’s a young lad, our Liesel falls in love with. This is Cornelia by the way.”

A woman with grass green- coloured hair held his hand awkwardly. She wore similar clothes and held a white and red book in her other hand.

“Would you like to join us?”, the girl asked.

“He hasn’t read the book.”, Lewis said with a smile.

“I’ll never hear the end of it.” Hathaway rolled his eyes.

“I’m Daisy, by the way.”, the woman, they had first spoken to suddenly said. “Hi.”

“And over there are Bert, Jacob, Lenore and Cho.”, Lucas said.

“I don’t want to wear this many layers of clothes. Why is Rosa even fat? We have war! She probably hasn’t enough to eat. She shouldn’t have enough to eat!”, they heard the third woman exclaim loudly. She had a strong accent. Probably French.

Daisy had looked at the detectives thoughtfully. “You probably want to speak to all of us, right? Guys, come over!”, she yelled.

The theatre group assembled around them.

“What can you tell us about Caroline Ford?”, Lewis asked, after they had went quiet.

All of them started to talk at the same time and Hathaway had problems with taking notes.

“She was very strict.”

“She was very poor.”

“She had wanted to become a famous actress.”

“…But this didn’t work obviously.”

“She was very punctual.”

“She was eccentric.”

“She took care of her sister’s child, since her parents died.”

“She wants her not to join the theatre. She wants her to be a doctor or a scientist instead.”

 

“Was there anyone, who didn’t like her?”, Hathaway asked and made some notes.

“I don’t think there was anyone who did like her.”

“She wasn’t very …nice.”

“She was some kind of evil grandma, if you can imagine that. Just like –very mean.”

“Said I was too old.”

“Said I was too fat.”

“Said I should shower more often.”

“Said I should shave my hair off.”

They all went quiet again, when Lewis raised a hand. “Did she seem different the last time you saw her? And when did you last see her?”, he asked.

General head-shaking was the answer he got.

Then suddenly Lewis’ phone rang and they exchanged a look.

He took the call, while James asked a few more questions, which no one really had an answer to.

After a while they left.

James took his phone back from Anne, when they got back into the car and put it on a portable phone charger, because his battery was about to die.

 

~~~L~~~

 

Anne chattered something about why she liked hot chocolate better than tea, while James looked up at the tall and old buildings, still reverential after so many years. They often made him a bit melancholic.

How much have these buildings seen in the course of time…

He glanced at Lewis. He was very quiet, not wanting to discuss any details of the most recent murder, in front of the small child. But he could see, that he was thinking about something very hardly. Then they arrived.

“You can play something on my phone, while you stay in the car. Ok?”, Lewis said, before he got out of the car.

“Ok.” She nodded and grabbed for the phone with not very clean hands.

Hathaway looked back at the car before entering the building. The girl seemed perfectly content. Having a child seemed so much easier, than he had ever expected. Not that he had imagined it very often.

 

~~~L~~~

 

She was arranged in the same way, as the first victim.

The main difference seemed to be, that she was much younger.

But the first thing that caught their eyes was again the writing on the wall. It looked a bit more rushed than the one from the first crime scene.

Hathaway started to read: _"But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?_

_It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!_

_\- Act 2, scene 2 Romeo and -"_

"Juliet! Of course I do know where this one is from!"

James smirked shortly.

"Her name really is Juliet.", Lewis said in surprise, as he took a look at the ID.

"Juliet Gregson, 25.", Hathaway said, glancing over his shoulder. "...I hope she doesn't leave a child behind. I don’t know, if we are ready for a second one."

"It's more likely, that she leaves her poor parents behind.", Lewis said, still staring at the corpse.

They stepped closer to the wall. It was more sprinkled than the last one.

Tiny drops of blood, consumed by the thirsty yellowish- white wallpaper.

Some people would say it was more like ‘eggshell’, others would simply try to rip it from the wall, as it was a truly horrible colour.

Juliet seemed to be one of the second kind of people. There were scratches on the wall, which clearly were made by her, if you had a closer look at her nails.

They had been manicured a long time ago and now were grey, red and yellow.

Then Hathaway noticed something underneath her sleeves.

“These are Latin suffixes.”, he said, looking at the small letters.

“Then we should also pay a visit to the local Latin club.”, Lewis said.

“The people from there were also somehow connected to the theatre club, if I remember correctly.”

“Hello, Laura.”, Lewis greeted the leader of the forensic team, when she entered the room.

“How is our little princess doing?”, Laura asked.

“He is mortally offended, because there exists a book, he hasn’t read yet.  Anne on the other hand is fine. She’s waiting in the car.”

Hathaway failed at looking insulted, as a smirk appeared at the corner of his mouth.

“So, what do we know about the victim?”

“She is dead.”, Laura said and made a dramatic pause. Then she continued: “At first glance, it looks like she was poisoned. Do you see this small spots in her face?”

“Ah, yes, we already learned that. Small spots mean poisonings.”

Laura rolled her eyes. But there wasn’t much more she could say at the moment. As per usual. Only that she couldn’t have been dead for more than a few hours.

 

~~~L~~~

 

When Lewis got his phone back, the battery was almost dead as well.

“Have you downloaded a new App?”, he asked, as he turned to her.

“Yes, I have. It is a game.”

“What was wrong with playing Pacman?”

“You don’t have that on your phone.”, Hathaway said.

“I don’t?” He blinked at his phone.

“There is a game I always played on my aunts’ phone. You take care of a puppy and then you can play with him and feed him and buy him clothes.”, Anne told them excitedly.

“So you like dogs?”, Hathaway asked in the silence that followed, because Lewis was still trying to process what he had just heard, not really able to imagine, what the girl had been talking about.

“Yes, I do. But only the small ones.”, the girl said.

And then she was very happy to get the phone back, when they had parked in front of the language faculty.

 

~~~L~~~

 

_Ne discere_ _cessa_ was written on a big poster, hanging on the opposite wall of the room, as Lewis and Hathaway entered.

"Don't stop learning. Cato.", Hathaway whispered.

They introduced themselves after the students, sitting in a circle had went silent.

"We are here because of the theatre club.", Lewis began.

"They started it!" came a shrill interruption.

"Look at that: _Fiat iustitia et pereat mundus._ They are threatening us."

A red haired boy handed them a crumbled group photo. The faces of the people in it were crossed out.

And there was something in Latin written on the back.

Lewis looked startled.

"There will be justice, even if the world will fall apart. Kaiser Ferdinand I.", Hathaway clarified.

"How do you know, it was them?", Lewis asked.

"Who else could it be?", a young woman in a green shirt asked back.

“’There will be justice’ sounds like there had been things happening, before you got that letter.”, Hathaway said with a neutral expression.

“Maybe.”, someone said quietly.

“Shushhhh!”, someone else said.

“They are jealous of us.”

Someone whispered something very quietly in latin and a few laughed.

The rest of them kept quiet, looking slightly concerned.

“What was rule number one of the Latin club?”, the boy, who was seemingly the head of the club, dramatically asked the fellow students.

“Don’t talk about the Latin club?”, a boy with thick round glasses asked shyly

“No, _stultus_ , it -“

“What happened in the Latin club stays in the Latin club?”, another boy asked.

“It’s ‘never stop learning’! Everything they can do, we can do better.”

“Everything but social competence.”, a girl whispered. Some of them giggled.

“In fact they don’t like us, because they are jealous.”

“I need you to write down, where you were in the last three days, who you met and who you talked to.”, Lewis said, who didn’t really have the nerve to listen to them anymore.

The young people obeyed without any complaints.

After about ten minutes, they were able to collect the writings of the students. One handwriting worse than the other.

"We will call you, if we should think; we could be of any more assistance. Vale!", the red haired boy said.

"This means Goodbye.", Hathaway whispered.

"Goodbye.", Lewis said. He nodded politely, before they left the room.

 

~~~L~~

 

“I’m hungry and I’m bored.”, the girl said, when they entered the car again.

“We just had breakfast.”, Lewis said, who was occupied with something else.

“If you define ‘just’ with eight hours ago, then yes.”, Hathaway said.

Lewis muttered something, he didn’t want the girl to hear.

" _Ergo bibamus_.", the Sergeant answered.

"I know that one.", the DI smiled.

 

~~~L~~~

 

They soon sat in their favourite pub; Anne got some Spaghetti, while James ate a salad and Robbie a steak.

After she had finished, she got send to the toilet to wash her hands –and her face.

They sat in silence, staring at the table in front of them, until Hathaway, who seemed like he had read the DIs mind, finally said: "Sir, we can't put her into an orphanage. She apparently has nowhere else to go."

“We can’t let her live in the car. And-”

“She won’t. Tomorrow is a school day anyway.”

Lewis seemed to fight with himself inwardly. He wanted to- but at the same time-

James placed his hand on Robbie’s knee and looked him in the eyes.

"We don't have the time to take care of a child.", Lewis muttered.

"But Laura said that she would help."

"But..."

Hathaway looked at him with puppy-eyes. “You want it too, don’t you?”

Lewis took a deep breath. "Ok. Fine." He sighed. But he also smiled, without even realising it.

And they stood up.

“Sir, we should do the homework, now.”

“Oh, right. Homework.”, Lewis said.

Anne, who was just coming back from the toilet, didn’t look too happy, having heard the word ‘homework’.

 

~~~L~~~

 

“I don’t think, we did this in grammar school,”, Lewis said.

“Us neither.”, Hathaway said. He chewed on his pencil, whishing it was a cigarette. They said in the office, all hunched over one colourful math book.

“We have to use Pythagoras.”, the girl said.

“Pythagoras of Samos lived from 570 to 495 BC and was an Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of-“

“Don’t just quote Wikipedia, Hathaway! How do you calculate the …triangle?”, Lewis asked.

Hathaway shrugged annoyed.

“You speak Latin and a bit of ancient Greek and know all sorts of things about literature, but you draw the line at elementary school math?”

“She is in an advanced class.”, he muttered. Then he looked in a different direction very icily.

 

~~~L~~~

 

About half an hour later they had to meet Innocent in her office.

“Where is the girl?”, she asked first when they entered.

“She is in the morgue. Laura is helping her with the rest of her homework.”, James said with a more straight face than usual.

Innocent nodded.

“Have you made any progress so far?”

“We talked to a few people the victims regularly interacted with.”, James said.

“We talked to the victims’ friends”, Lewis said at the same time.

They shared a look.

Almost half an hour went by, before Innocent let them go again

At least it had given Laura enough time to help Anne complete her homework.

 

~~~L~~~

 

“Have you finished your homework?”

“Yes we have. We also prepared for her test on Wednesday.”

“You have a test on Wednesday.”, Hathaway stated. It was new information to him.

She hid behind Laura.

“And what do you say?”

“Thank you, Laura.”

“You are welcome, honey.”, she smiled, until she noticed, how worried Hathaway seemed to be.

“She will be fine. Look, I still have work to do. Goodbye, Anne, and remember what I told you about using a pencil. See you tomorrow, James.”

The girl took his hand, before he could say anything else. He carried her books back upstairs, while she chattered happily about some cartoon he didn’t know anything about.

 

~~~L~~~

 

“Do you look forward to going to school, tomorrow?”

The girl nodded with a small smile.

“All of your homework done?”, Hathaway asked.

“Yes, I did.”

“Time to go to bed, then.”, Hathaway said.

“But I’m not tired yet.” She pouted. And crossed her arms.

“Well, we are tired. And you should be too. Is there anything I can do to help you fall asleep?”

She giggled.

“Please, play the guitar, James.”

So the Sergeant took his guitar, sat down next to the bed and started to play something slow. She closed her eyes and smiled, while James sang something very softly.

After she had fallen asleep, Hathaway turned around, to find Lewis leaning in the doorframe, smiling absently.

 

~~~L~~~

 

They sat down on the couch.

“You are doing great.”, Lewis said. And there was honest admiration in his voice. Hathaway didn’t know what to answer and Lewis didn’t know what else to say. So they just looked at each other thoughtfully until Lewis’ phone vibrated. After a moment of hesitation, he took it out of his pocket.

Hathaway cleared his throat. “Thank you. I did a bit of research on the internet.”

Lewis looked confused for a moment. “About what?”

“Children.”, said Hathaway said with so much seriousness in his voice, that it made Lewis chuckle quietly.

“Are you playing this game?”, Hathaway asked after a while.

“Yes.”, Lewis answered without looking up from his phone.

“Liking it?

“Yes, I am.” Lewis grinned.

“Then we also should get a puppy.”, said Hathaway, again with a very serious expression.

“One step at a time.”

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> Please, let me know, what you think so far.  
> Constructive criticism is always welcome.
> 
> Tell me, if you like my story, tell me if you like my OCs, tell me how many people you think are still going to die.
> 
> Tell me, if you have any ideas on how to improve my English. I- apologize for any mistakes. It’s my third language after all.
> 
> Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday, one of you, guys, has to make an in-depth analysis of this.  
> Seriously, I’m hiding so many easter eggs in my stories…
> 
> Visit me on tumblr (abirdonalilactree), if you like to talk, or just quietly watch me reblog cute animal pics, memes and writing stuff …or somthin’.
> 
> Also feel free to message me, if you like to discuss my story, Lewis, the Morseverse or crime series in general  
> 
> Oh, and sorry for putting Oxford commas all over the place; I couldn’t stop myself.
> 
> Thanks again and have a good day/night.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your patience.
> 
> The last chapter was uploaded almost a year ago.
> 
> This means this story might get finished somewhere around 2025.
> 
> Anyway: Please Enjoy!

 

Somewhere in a dark alley near to the student accomodations, two hooded figures met. They greeted each other with a small wave.

Then a special handshake.

It was early in the morning, when the air seemed a lot cleaner and calmer.

Quieter.

There were only a handful of students on the streets. Those who left the library to continue to read at home, although the words in books, older than their parents and heavier than was good for their backs, had been beyond any sense for hours and those who stumbled home from the closing bars and taverns and clubs, full of alcohol and sometimes worse. 

And then there were the shady figures. Those who now looked around once more to make sure that the other two types of people weren't too close.

After a few whispered words they exchanged something small. Small and grey.

A few more words.

A huffed laugh.

A sneer.

Then they disappeared between the shadows again to where they came from.

Or somewhere else, dark.

 

~~~

 

This time Lewis was the first to be awake and make breakfast.

It was early in the morning and he had time to go to the closest bakery and get something that covered the kitchen in memories of long forgotten feelings of home and a sense of belonging.

The smell of family mornings, until disturbed by a phone ringing.

And a grumpy DI Morse.

“Breakfast is ready."

He knocked shortly on the door before he entered. For a moment he had to pause, because it was the exact kind of knock he had used when his children had still lived there.

They had always appreciated the knocking opposed to Val sometimes barging into their rooms whenever they've been doing anything but their homework, because she had a sense for it that Lewis lacked completely.

The girl was already awake.

She was standing at the window, seemingly observing something. When he stood beside her, the streets were empty.

“Are you ok?”, he asked carefully.

“Yes.”, she said sternly and turned.

Then she giggled and stormed past him towards kitchen.

“Good. ...good.”

He nodded like he agreed.

 

~~~L~~~

 

They were quiet when they sat together at the breakfast table.

Lewis was lost in his thoughts of the past. The past seemed so far away.

Breakfast with the family.

Until the phone rang and Morse called.

Val would look at him half understanding and half disapprovingly.

James took a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and-

"Those are not good for you.", Anne said without looking up.

James leaned forward and quietly answered: "Well, sometimes you have to-"

"Just pack them away, James.", Lewis said and stared at him disapprovingly until Hathaway obeyed reluctantly.

Then he half smiled bravely at the girl.

She smiled back brightly.

Then she went back to sitting still and quiet, concentrating on putting marmalade on her piece of bread as  evenly as possible, while Hathaway slouched in his chair, and looked secretely at his phone under the table.

Discussing the ongoing case was no option at the moment with the young girl being around.

Hathaway couldn't think of any suitable topic to discuss with a child at the moment and so he assumed it would be the best idea to just to google what was a healthy amount of breakfast for a girl her age, and he tried to make sure that she ate no more and no less. 

"More orange juice?", he asked.

The girl nodded and he poured a bit of the orange liquid in her glass.

She nodded again and smiled shyly.

Lewis blinked.

Where was he?

At the breakfast table the kids would tell stories from school. They would snicker and sometimes argue with each other.

They would chat and talk. At least when they were still Annes age.

Now he saw what had bothered him.

Anne was so quiet.

He started: "Do you-"

The phone rang.

  
  


~~~L~~~

  
  


Anne was the first child at the school yard when they brought her there.

Only a teacher was already there fixing her make up like anyone would care.

Hathaway left the girl under a tree where she sat down, with a book in her lap, hopefully waiting for the other children to arrive.

It tore at his heart, leaving her there like that. Alone.

But he couldn't make any excuse to bring her with him to the crime scene. And leaving her in the car for the whole day again was out of question as well.

 

~~~ L~~~

 

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

-This is act 1, scene 1, Hamlet.", Hathaway mumbled under his breath, having a closer look at the red-brownish liquid that had dried mid movement.

Lewis looked down at the corpse. It was a young man.

Flies buzzed.

The light flickered.

Rain dropped against the wall, slowly but steadily.

"We might be facing a serial killer, who chooses his victim randomly.", they overheard one of the photographers say.

"Oh shut up, Ralph." the second photographer hissed.

The detectives shared a look.

"What brings you to that conclusion?", Lewis asked as he stepped closer.

"We don't have a motive or a connection between the victims, well no motive or connection *yet*", the first Photographer, whos name apparently was Ralph answered, without looking up from his camera.

"How would you know?", Hathaway asked.

The second Photographer chimed in: "He doesn't."

Now Ralph finally looked up. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there, Sir."

Then he stepped closer and whispered: "You know, one day I'll just take your jobs." He laughed.

Lewis smiled politely, while Hathaway prepared for a witty answer to that.

Then his eyes fell on Laura, who was still kneeling beside the corpse. 

She shook her head lightly and James stayed quiet.

 

~~~

 

At the office they had a whole stack of paperwork waiting for them, which they ignored, Lewis leaning on his desk, a false movement could make the fragile construction of an upside down paper pyramid crash and burry the floor, while Hathaway wrote on the board in cursive letters, more elegantly than usually, since he was in a bad mood.

"Don't take this too seriously, he's not getting our jobs.", Lewis said.

Hathaway rolled his eyes.

"We've seen him before. Haven't we?", Lewis asked quietly.

"I think he was one of the latin students."

"You might be right."

"Do you think that there is a connection?"

 

~~~L~~~

 

Laura was in a foul mood. There had been a mistake with the corpses and in front of her was a man who probably was in his ninetys and had died of a heart attack, she looked at the numbers and then looked again and to sum it up: the corpse of the latest victim of the case that had priority was somewhere else but it certainly wasn't where it should be right now.

 

~~~L~~~   
  


Only minutes after Laura angrily telling them what had happened, the DI and the Sergeant found themselves again in the chief's office.

"We lost a body.", Lewis stated once more.  He shook his head in disbelief.

"Imagine the headline.", Innocent said.

While she rambled on about newspapers, bad publicity and whatnot, Hathaway imagined the headline, but he caught himself before she could notice a smirk she wouldn't like.

"Seems like you can go home early, today.", Innocent finally said. "Take care of your child.", she added with the flicker of a smile.

After they had closed the door behind them, Lewis turned to his Sergeant and said: "Let's buy something for the child quite quickly before we pick her up. School isn't over yet.", Lewis said.   
  


~~~L~~~

 

It has been a long time, since he had last went to a shop to buy a stuffed animal.

And now he saw, that things had changed. Drastically.

The toys seemed more ...alive than usual. He didn't like it.

Hathaway watched him, while he took a white Puppy from one of the shelves and put it back immediately when it started moving and barking in a shrill voice.

"That's scary."

"Not the scariest thing, I've seen today. But still..."

"We should hurry. I still have to think about what to cook for dinner.", Lewis said, trying very hard to not show how uncomfortable the toys that seemed to follow him with their eyes made.

"On our way home we could stop by the italian, I told you about."

"I actually thought, the girl should get some proper food."

"When did you cook the last time?"

"Well, I made Sandwiches this morning. You ate three of them, if I have to remind you."

They smirked at each other.

Looking at Hathaway instead of the toys calmed him down just enough.

Suddenly a shop assistant with messy hair and dirty glasses stood behind them and asked in a bored tone: "May I help you?"

Lewis turned to him and said: "Yes, we'd like to buy a toy."

"Obviously.", Hathaway said over his shoulder.

"What kind of toy do you and your husband have in mind then?"

"Where is the adult section? Is it on this floor?", Hathaway asked, while staring him not so straight in the eyes.

"The girl gets a simple teddy bear.", Lewis said in an unimpressed tone.

"Oh.", the shop assistant simply said with a plain face. Then he handed them a blue fluffy teddy bear with huge eyes and a somehow terrifyingly happy smile from one of the top shelves. "This one is from our newest-"

"Don't you have anything more...", Lewis started, shoving the creature back.

"...More old fashioned?", Hathaway helped.

"There might be something in the store. Gimme a sec." The assistant made an annoyed face.

Lewis and Hathaway shared another look. James couldn't resist to press a random button on a chicken. The chicken shrieked and the began to sing "Happy Birthday", which made Lewis jump. He looked but no one of the other customers seemed to care. At the other end of the aisle a small boy whined in a shrill tone because his mother wouldn't buy him aln at least one and a half metres tall blue dragon.

Soon the assistant came back with a dark brown Teddy bear with normal sized black eyes.

The bear smiled mildly.

"Perfect.", Lewis sighed, relieved to be able to leave this hell.

"Now the adult toy section?", the assistant asked.

"No, actually we do have everything we need at home, now that I think about it.", Hathaway said and smiled sweetly.

"I'm sure you do.", the assistant answered, equally politely.

Lewis tried not to step on some Legos that weren't so much spilled as seemed more to have been placed strategically as a trap for everyone that dared to come to close to the Lego section.

  
  


~~~L~~~

  
  


„How was school?“, Lewis asked, when she climbed into the car.

„Good.“, Anne answered.

„Good.“, Lewis said.

„Having homework again?“

„Already done it.“, she said quickly.

„Good.“, Lewis said.

„Would you show us?“, James asked.

„…No?“

„She hasn’t done her homework, Sir.“

“Is this true, Anne?”

Anne didn't answer. But her face was now a taletelling shade of pink.

"We should lock her up for lying to us. I heard today there won't be any dinner in prison...Because it is sunday...and sunday is washing day, which means-", Lewis whispered loudly.

"I'm sorry!", the girl said half confused and half afraid.

"We should talk about parenting methods later.", Hathaway said.

Lewis raised an eyebrow, which should mean 'She knows I'm joking, right?'

The Sergeant shook his head slightly.

Lewis looked in the rear mirror to see the girl biting her lips as if trying not to cry. He immediately started to feel guilty.

His children never had gotten any scared by his empty threats of putting them in prison for not cleaning their teeth, or listening to the radio too loudly.

 

~~~L~~~

 

Fortunately the girl only had an essay due the next day. And Hathaway was better suited to help her with that.

"No no that sounds too repetitive. What are other synonyms for 'good?'", James asked.

"Ok?"

"Other words?"

"Nice?"

"Yes, what else?"

The girl sighed heavily.

"What about some hot chocolate?", Lewis who had been silently watching them suddenly asked.

"But she already had chocolate for dessert-"

"I'll quickly make some.", Lewis said.

 

~~~L~~~

 

"Is something wrong, Sir?", Hathaway asked as he came into the kitchen and found Lewis sitting at the kitchen table, hands folded together, staring into empty space. 

The milk in the microwave had already gotten cold again, while it beeped mercilessly. Hathaway turned the beeping off.

„It just somehow feels like my time is running out.“, Lewis said carefully.

Hathaway wasn’t sure on what to reply to that.

Maybe a bible phrase would help.

Something like Mtt. 28:16-20 And behold, I am with you always, to the end of age.-

No, this probably wouldn’t help. Lewis didn’t like it, when he quoted from the bible.

Instead he stepped beside him and laid a hand on his shoulder reassuringly.

Lewis smiled.

This was better.

He smiled back.   
  


~~~L~~~

 

After finishing the homework, Anne and her new Teddy bear got send to bed. 

Hathaway had to play the guitar again.

Lewis listened as well again, leaning at the door frame and then after the girl had fallen asleep with the teddy bear in her arms, he turned off the lights and made sure, that the windows were properly closed.

 

~~~L~~~   
  


James looked exhausted, when he sat collapsed next to the DI on the couch.

"You are not going home again.", Lewis stated.

"But Sir, our daughter needs both her parents."

Lewis laughed shortly. "Do you not need a change of clothes or something?"

"I’m already using your washing machine. I can iron your dark green suit later if you like me to."

"I knew something was different. Since when do I have this painting and where does this plate come from?"

"Oh, they are mine, Sir. I thought-"

"And I was sure I didn’t remember this painting."

"I might have hung it there."

"What about the pink towels in the bathroom? I don’t think they are mine.”

"I wouldn’t describe them as pink, they are actually salmon but you are not wrong."

"hm.", Lewis hummed.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you very much for reading. Please, tell me, what you think so far.
> 
>  
> 
> And I can't believe this took me a year!
> 
>  
> 
> I can't promise anything but this story might get updated sooner than last time.
> 
>  
> 
> But trust me I won't abandon any of my stories. Because I know how it feels to read one.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. Please let me know, what you think so far.  
> I’ll might have some …internet problems in the next few months, but I’ll try to update every two to three weeks.
> 
> Oh, and please private message me, if you find my easter eggs. Everyone who gets one right, gets a virtual hug. 
> 
> Have a nice day/night
> 
> -Sam :)


End file.
